Bay Area Vegetarians is starting a book club that will read nonfiction vegan and animal rights topics, and the occasional fiction story that has a vegan theme. (If you are a long-time member, then we are “restarting” the book club.)

There’s some wonderful books out there. If you’d like to read more books (and enjoy vegan food during the discussions), then maybe this is the book club for you! Read the rest of this entry »

13,890 leaflets, to be precise. That’s how many leaflets our volunteers distributed to individuals at Bay Area colleges in the Spring and Fall 2014 semesters, and in recent outreach at the Vallejo Farmer’s Market in October and November of this year.

We’re gardeners, planting the seeds of compassion and good health for the next crop of vegans and vegetarians.

On Saturday, October 18th, a typically sunny yet slightly cool fall morning, BAVeg launched its mobile outreach unit at the Vallejo Farmer’s Market. What is a mobile outreach unit?

Well, if you’re a budget-conscious, small non-profit, it’s a shopping cart and plank of thin wood with all the trimmings for outreach – posters, tablecloth, business cards and hundreds of leaflets from Vegan Outreach and Farm Sanctuary (Compassionate Choices, Even If You Like Meat, Why Vegan, both English and Spanish language versions, Truth about Humane Meat, Eggs, and Dairy, and, of course, holiday recipes)

Our mission:

- distribute information on all the awesome reasons to eat plant-strong, vegan foods
– connect and support other vegans and vegetarians, as well as the veg-curious, in the area

Given that 548 pieces of literature were distributed that morning, and we met some wonderful new veg friends, it was a successful day!

Darren, who’s initial enthusiasm for this project was key to making it happen, explained why this activity was important to him and his partner Todd. “We wanted to join because I work at Farm Rescue and see the bad side of what humans do to other sentient beings, so it is important to us that we get out there and try to educate as many people as possible to all the wonderful cruelty-free options we have , so as to avoid having to rescue and save these wonderful souls in the first place. If we leaflet, speak up, we can hopefully change even just one person, which has a big impact on your animal population and on the planet.”

We will be returning to do more vegan outreach at the Vallejo Farmer’s Market, typically on the 3rd Saturday. Please come visit us — next date is Saturday, November 15th. Volunteers are welcome, no previous experience necessary. The market runs from 9 am to 2 pm, and it would be ideal to cover its entire duration with two shifts of volunteers, say 9 am – 11:30 am, and 11:30 am to 2 pm. Interested in helping? Please contact Tammy

Please join Bay Area Vegetarians for the first annual Oakland Veg Week!

Oakland Veg Week is a week-long celebration (April 15-21, 2012) that invites meat-eaters to pledge to be vegetarian for one week. It’s a positive, upbeat event where everyone wins: Meat-eaters who want a little help with their veg experiment, local restaurants who want more customers, the City of Oakland (who, let’s face it, could use some happy press!), and most importantly, the animals who would really, really, really like to see more vegetarians!

Bay Area Vegetarians is going to match every donation made for OVW12 up to $500.00. For real! That means a possible total of $1,000 to buy more vegan food to give to meat-eaters…if you can help us out. Your $50 donation is actually $100 with this match, and it’s tax-deductible! Oakland Veg Week is all volunteer, all free, and all awesome. With your support, OVW can reach more meat-eaters with the veg information and samples.

Bay Area Vegetarians’ Vegan Food Party (VFP) is a community-inspired gathering where new and old friends meet to share conversation and like-minded camaraderie over homemade vegan foods. Both members and guests (including veg*ns and non-veg*ns) are welcome to attend, as long as they bring a vegan dish to share.

And that’s the challenge for the party go’er.. deciding what to bring.

Alicia, who is hosting a Vegan Food Party this Sunday in San Rafael, has a straight-forward guideline for deciding what to bring: “Depends on location–if it’s close, I like to bring something hot. If it’s far, then I bring something that can be served cold or at room temperature.”

One of her favorite dishes is a linguine with a peanut sauce with steamed broccoli. The peanut sauce has peanut butter, rice vinegar, crushed red pepper flakes, olive oil, soy sauce, and water or veggie stock.

Cheryl, who is hosting a Vegan Food Party next month in Pacifica, shares her strategy: “I have selected what I bring to a food part a few different ways. The first time I went to a summer Vegan food party, I went online and searched Vegan Summer recipes and found a wonderful vegan potato salad and I still make it to this day. It was a wonderful way to find a new recipe that became part of my classic recipes. I have also made something that I had somewhere when I was out and decided to have a go and make it on my own without a receipe. It was a Cold Asian Tofu Marinate over rice and it turned out to be a huge success.

I think it is fun to try new ideas and create your own recipes, but I have also made something that I have made for myself in the past too! This upcoming party I am making something fun and that I have made in the recent past.”

There’s a variety of ways to decide what to bring. Tammy and Chris, who hosted the first-ever Vegan Food Party, share a couple of their ideas on how to decide what to bring: “Sometimes we need inspiration to try a new recipe, so we pick one that sounds interesting and bring it to the VFP to ‘animal test it’. Or, maybe it’s an excuse to make a favorite dish that we haven’t had in awhile, like macaroni and cheese. Because we both love vegan desserts, we’ll often bring something in that category, like brownies, chocolate mousse pie, cheesecake, apple cake, or pumpkin pie.”

This class will feature holiday favorites pumpkin, apple, and pecan pies plus fruit & nut filled holiday cookies. With Dr. Christine Dickson, learn the secret tips for making perfect pie crust and take time to network and share ideas with others. Each dessert featured in this class makes a great gift for friends and family!

The goal of the Bay Area Vegetarians is to share information promoting veganism, and connect/support the veg and animal rights community. What happens or doesn’t happens depends on each one of us, and in the long-run, determines how well we eat because most events should involve lots of vegan food (well, at least the ones that I’m involved with do!)

Does anyone have a special BAVeg event they’ve been thinking of organizing, but uncertain about how to get started?

Well, the first step is to email us with the date/time and let us know what you want to do. Just about any type of event (as long as all the food is vegan) and it’s open to everyone can be a BAVeg event.

Here are some ideas

vegan cheese tasting party

leaflet at a concert or summer fair

Mission food trek (Cafe Gratitude/Cha Ya/Herbivore/Udupi)

organize a dinner at your favorite veg restaurant

organize a Vegan Food Party at your favorite park or home

DIY skill share: have something to say or something to show related to veganism/animal rights? Let me know, we will be having regular Vegan Food Parties at the ocean-view community room at the Pacifica Library.

movie night: screen a movie related to veg/AR. either at your home, or community room

We look forward to hearing about the events you’d like to help make happen. Thank you!